Minimalist will love this one...

[Jacob(smooth)]

I'm sick of this whole "we have to TRAIN our allies to fight like proper gentlemen" shit. We sound like the British!

It's funny cos it's true. BBC

[DramaQueen]

Coup d'etat coup d'etat coup de coup d'etat etat

[DeistPaladin]

I'll take it as a: No, Minimalist definitely won't love this one.

Sarcasm doesn't translate well on the internet. I meant to say he'll "love this" in the sense that it's another example of Bill'O making an ass out of himself on a topic with which Min is very familiar.

---

Mercenaries would be a grand idea if you could pay them enough. Trouble is, you can't. Citizen soldiers (volunteers, I mean, not conscript troops) fight for reasons other than money.

By definition, you can never pay mercenaries "enough". You can't take it with you. A soldier fighting for duty or country might be convinced to lay down his life but not a soldier-for-hire. Herein lies the inherent flaw.

[vorlon13]

Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas did.

[Minimalist]

Mercenaries would be a grand idea if you could pay them enough.

You can easily pay them enough to be "soldiers." You can't pay them enough to actually fight.

Evidence of that is the Iraqi Army, the Nigerian Army and the South Vietnamese Army.

I wonder how you say "Feet, don't fail me now" in Vietnamese?

[Crossless2.0]

I wonder how you say "Feet, don't fail me now" in Vietnamese?

I'm pretty sure it's either Ngo Dinh Diem or Nguyen Van Thieu.

[downbeatplumb]

Hey Min,

Thought about you when I read Bill O'Riley's brilliant idea about how to fight ISIS and defeat them. We need an army of mercenaries. What could go wrong?

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/09/bill-o...rce-defeat

You have to know you're way out on a limb when Krauthammer schools you.

Do you think he may be thinking about companies like Blackwater?

[Anomalocaris]

I can't help but think the concept of a mercenary army is so appealing to the conservatives because it can potentially give the conservatives a private battle hardened army not loyal to national government when the other side wins national elections.

[Minimalist]

That Blackwater fuck forgets that his men would be arrested the moment they set foot in Iraq.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/world/...wanted=all

[Anomalocaris]

I'm sick of this whole "we have to TRAIN our allies to fight like proper gentlemen" shit. We sound like the British!

If people join an army because we have bombed their fucking country back to the stone age and there are no other jobs we should not think that they will be highly invested in supporting the government that is nothing but out puppet.

An army of gentlemen does not win modern wars. An army of warriors does not win modern wars. An army of thugs does not win modern wars.

Only an army of soldiers can win a modern war.